Canadians, who were in Hurricane Maria's path, evacuated: minister

CRS is also preparing to respond to Hurricane Maria. And I asked him, what could he tell us about the situation on the ground? Let's be generous to those who were less fortunate this time. "We haven't even finished getting out of Harvey and now we're hit with this". One written the morning after the animals arrived saidthe organization didn't need any more donations of food or water. Beyond Turks and Caicos the hurricane is likely to weaken as it moves between Bermuda and the U.S. East Coast.

Jolie Gonzalez-Padilla hadn't heard from her dad since the night before the hurricane hit.

"One of the shelters in San Juan had to relocate refugees to the hallways because of the roof - it was shaking due to the winds", Santiago said. "You don't have to sit home stress-eating". "Now your house is flooded, your family is under siege, and you have relatives back home that need help".

As Maria pushed through theCaribbean toward Puerto Rico, two people were missing after a boat sank off the coast of La Désirade, a small island near the mainland of Guadeloupe.

Elie Feingold of Dallas was riding out the storm at a San Juan hotel.

It all comes at a difficult time for many from the afflicted areas. The lack of power on the island has made communication nearly impossible. "It ain't going to happen in a week or two and it definitely ain't going to happen in a few months". For too long, we were, you know, being hit with catastrophic conditions.

He described suggestions that the UK could have reacted quicker to Hurricane Irma as an "utterly unfounded accusation". The main distribution terminal from the plant where all those heavy power lines came down, that's damaged.

MERCADER: That's right. That's right.

Gov. Kenneth Mapp warned residents to remain cautious as strong winds continued to lash the island.

By late this week, Maria should be located near or just north of the Dominican Republic.

MERCADER: I believe so. The. Portions of her restaurant's proceeds will go to Topos Mexico, a world-famous volunteer rescue group.

CHANG: But what happens to, say, hospitals?

Sander's close friend, Doug Westoff, is in Puerto Rico. "Since Irma never really happened, they thought Maria would be the same".

"I suffered here with Harvey and now this", said Lajara, the 46-year-old owner of Tex Chick, a Puerto Rican restaurant in Montrose.

On Wednesday Hurricane Maria dealt Puerto Rico a direct punch, knocking out power across the entire island. There are still some winds, not necessarily the winds that they were feeling 10 hours ago, but there are still some winds of 40, 50, 60 miles per hour, so they have got to wait until the rain ends and the winds just go down, so that they can deploy all of the brigades that they have.

Maria was expected to cause widespread power outages across Puerto Rico.